Also this issue:

In iPod He Trusts
DJ Botany 500 inserts his brain into a little white box and rents it out.
-Patrick Rapa

Angelo Cho
-Peter Burwasser

Best to read it every week
-Patrick Rapa

Ed Harcourt
-Andrew Parks

Erin McKeown
-Nancy Armstrong

Electric Six
-Paul Burress

Tiësto
-Sean O’Neal

Kathleen Edwards
-Nicole Pensiero

June 12-18, 2003

musicpicks

Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra

For much of the 20th century, a cultural war raged in the new music world, with the accessible, tonal modernism exemplified by Igor Stravinsky pitted against the atonal crowd, whose god was Arnold Schoenberg. While the guns are not yet completely silent, the odds at the moment heavily favor the tonalists, despite almost universal support for the opposition by the academic and avant-garde communities. The ultimate conclusion of this engagement will be the focus of future revisionism. This Sunday afternoon, the Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, conducted by music director Daniel Spalding, will present three works that make up a sound snapshot of the progressive tonal school, beginning with the master himself, Stravinsky, with his stunningly brilliant "Pulcinella" Suite. Another Russian, Dmitri Shostakovich, who added pungent drama and political overtones to his art, will be represented by his vibrant Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, with Romanian born Gabriela Imreh as the piano soloist. The program closes with an American fellow traveler, California-based David Ward-Steinman, whose Concerto No. 2 for Chamber Orchestra will be heard live for the first time in Philadelphia.

Sun., June 15, 2 p.m., $20, First Presbyterian Church, 21st and Walnut sts., 866-403-6844.

—Peter Burwasser